From Roman feeding bottles to 20th century childhood

Micro-Gold Challenge 2016

Hello, I am Lorena, the exhibition’s Education Assistant. Since Hide and Seek: Looking for Children in the Past opened at the end of January, I have been busy providing taught sessions for primary and secondary schools, adult learners and community groups. So far 246 students have used the exhibition to learn about Cambridge as a settlement, British Prehistory, Romans and Anglo-Saxons.

As part of the Cambridge Science Festival this year, we are running a fun hands-on activity called ‘Beat the Bronze Age: The Microgold Challenge’. The activity is based around the tiny pieces of gold displayed in the exhibition. These gold studs decorated the handle of a Bronze Age dagger found in a burial near Stonehenge. The studs are so small that archaeologists had to use magnifying glasses to locate them in the soil! In a world without magnifying glasses, archaeologists believe that only children and teenagers would have been able to position the studs on the handle. We are putting this theory to the test with our scaled up versions of the dagger. Join us on Saturday 12th March (11.00-16.00) to find out who will be the best at fixing the studs, adults or children!